Storytime with Will and Halt
by StarHunter11
Summary: A cute little one-shot that I came up with while re-reading the Ruins of Gorlan. The title pretty much says it all.


The day was warm and bright, with not a cloud to see in any direction in the sky. Pairs of running feet could be heard on the hard packed dirt of the farm road as a group of five village children ran past. To any passer-by, it would seem as if the children were just outside to play as usual. However, on this day, these children had quite a different plan in mind. They stopped running at the boundary between the forest and the vast fields of wheat that surrounded their small but busting village, and changed to a slower walking pace.

The eldest of the group, a young girl around the age of ten spoke up, "Who's going to knock?" The four other children shuffled their feet and avoided eye contact with the others.

After a pause where the group was silent, another boy spoke up. "Why don't you go knock, Avery? After all you're the oldest."

The girl who had spoken first huffed. "I'm not going to knock! I asked the question; so therefore, I shouldn't be the one to do it!"

"Hey! How 'bout we draw straws?" This time it was another girl named Gretel who spoke. All of the children knew how game worked. There would be five pieces of straw, one for each of them. One of the straws would be shorter, and whoever picked that one would be the one to do it.

"All right," Avery answered, and went to pick out five pieces of wheat from the nearby field. She held them out in her hand, the bottoms of them hidden of course, and the four other children took turns picking a straw.

The shortest straw went to the unlucky boy, Howard. His face paled slightly when he realized that it would be him knocking.

A few minutes later, Howard, who just so happened to be the shortest of the group, climbed fearfully up the steps to Halt's cabin. The other children had retreated into the woods, afraid of what might happen. Howard raised a shaky fist to the door, and knocked, ever so quietly. He was half hoping that the Rangers wouldn't have heard him and that he would be able to scuttle back to rejoin with the rest of his group, and tell them that the Rangers weren't home. His hopes were in vain though, as a split second after he knocked, the door swung open, revealing an imposing figure dressed in forest green colours.

The small boy looked up at Ranger Halt, quivering with fear. Halt raised his right eyebrow as he took in the sight of the small boy in front of him. Unknown to Howard, Halt had heard him approaching, and a quick glance showed to him the four other children hidden back in the forest.

"And what might bring a small boy like you to my cabin?" Halt asked, very baffled. He chose to ignore the other children in the forest for the moment.

"Uh... Sorry, Ranger Halt, Sir, it's just that... sir, my friends and I... we were wondering if, uh, maybe you and Ranger Will, sir, could, uh..." The small boy trailed off, frozen with fear.

"Go on," Halt said, smiling slightly to urge him on.

"Well, we were wondering if could maybe tell us the story of how you defeated the Kalkara," Howard finished, shuffling his feet, and looking down at the ground.

Halt frowned. "I don't think that's any story for children to hear. What would your parent's do if they found out that I had told you something that would give you nightmares?"

"But _pwease_!" the small boy protested. "I wanna hear the story!"

The other children in the forest had come out now, hoping to sway Halt's decision. "Ya! I heard that the Kalkara were as big as a _house_!" Avery said, gesturing with her hands to display the supposed enormity of the creatures.

"And that you killed them with your bare _hands!_" A boy named Ryan added in.

With the five children crowded onto his small porch, begging him to tell the story, Halt couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. "Will!" he called into the house. "There's some people here to see you!"

"Does this mean that you'll tell us?" Howard asked, his eyes big and pleading.

"Maybe. You'll have to convince Will to tell you first, though."

Will chose that moment to appear in the doorway to the small cottage. "Tell you what?" he asked looking around at the group of children perplexedly.

"Ranger Will, sir, could you tell us the story of how you defeated the Kalkara?" Howard piped up, having lost his previous fear.

"Pwease?" added Blake, another boy.

Halt shrugged at Will. "I told them that it was no story for small children."

"We're not small children!" Avery shot back, apparently forgetting her small stature, which was quite small even in comparison to the two short Rangers.

Will tried to raise an eyebrow like Halt, but failed and instead screwed up his face in an odd manner. Halt would have said something about it, but he felt that it was not the right time.

"Ah, I suppose I could tell you," Will told the children, after giving up on his eyebrow raising attempt. This caused the children to jump up and down out of joy.

When they had finally quieted down, Will had them sit down on the porch as he and Halt sat on the two chairs at the end. He looked down at the five pairs of wide eyes looking up at him and cleared his throat.

"What is that horrid noise that you are making?" Halt said, just as he about to start. Will gave him his not-impressed face, and got ready to begin again, this time making sure to not clear his throat.

"It was a dark and stormy night," he began, but was then cut off my Halt.

"That's funny. I don't remember it being stormy."

Will sighed. "All right. It was a dark night..."

"Of course it was dark; it was night," Halt muttered loudly enough for Will to hear. Will, however, chose to ignore this comment from Halt, and continued on with his story.

His wide-eyed audience listened raptly as he told of how he, Baron Arald and Sir Rodney had ridden out to the Ruins of Gorlan and had first taken down the Kalkara that Halt had mortally wounded.

"Wait!" cried Gretel. "You'll have to tell us how you wounded the first Kalkara!" Will glanced over at his mentor, shrugging.

Halt had the sudden urge to clear his throat before he began, but quickly shook it off as he knew his apprentice would pick up on his mistake. He then went on to describe how he had been alone at the ruins with the two Kalkara charging towards him, and how he had shot the first one multiple times.

"Whoa!" said Howard in awe.

"Weren't you scared?" A wide-eyed Ryan asked.

Halt looked at the small boy. "Would you have been scared with two massive beasts charging towards you?"

"No!" Ryan said loudly puffing out his chest. Halt's gaze remained fixed on him for a few seconds before the young boy finally gave in, looking ashamedly at the ground. "Ok...maybe...I'd be really scared."

Will then continued on with his story with only a few interruptions from the children at certain points. When he neared the end, he saw that the five children sat transfixed by the tale.

"And, um, ya. That's how we defeated the Kalkara," Will finished.

"Cool!" cried out Avery.

"So you didn't fight them with your bare hands?" Ryan said, a slight bit disappointed.

"That was just a silly village rumour. You didn't actually believe that, did you?" Blake said.

Halt glanced at the sun. "It looks like you kids should be off to see your parents now. It'll be dinner time soon," he said. "And don't blame me if any of you have nightmares tonight," he added, almost as an afterthought.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, and for anyone who reads my other story, Cloaked in Shadows, I'll hopefully be updating that one fairly soon. **


End file.
